Rather
by heartstrung
Summary: He'd rather argue with her than to be with someone else. PERLIA. Don't like? Don't read. K-plus for safety. Constructive critism is love. Flames will make me s'mores! Yumm.


**AN:/ **This has to be one of the worst titles ever. Ugh. Well, I was inspired, okay? This fic didn't really go where I originally thought it would, but it'll have to do. There's, like, three POV changes. It goes Percy, Thalia, Percy, just so you know. And before you ask me about the claustrophobia thing, remember when Grover, Annabeth, and Percy were in the Arch? Yeah, Percy's kind of claustrophobic. I apologise in advance for any OOCness, nobody's perfect. Heh, this is a short Author's Note.

**AN as of 7/7/2011:/ **So I've fixed some mistakes and would like to edit _Exposure_ next. I don't plan on even raising a single finger to change _Therapy_. I feel that I'm happy as it is. I might not edit _Blind Date_, either. **Also, **I am in search of a beta for _Silver Bullets_ and a PM application would be much appreciated.

**Disclaimer:** I am not Rick Riordan, I only like to play in his world. Nor am I the talented Kanye West or John Legend, so I don't own "Blame Game".

**{**On a bathroom wall I wrote

I'd rather argue with you than to be with someone else**}**

**.x.**

"Thalia, please!"

She slammed the door in his face.

"Hey, c'mon, Thalia! You know I didn't mean to do that!"

He twisted the brass knob. It was locked.

"Please, will you open the door? I just want to talk to you!"

His fist met holographic lightning bolts.

"Thalia, it's not my fault! I swear―"

"You swear what, Percy? That you didn't mean _kiss_ her?" she screamed at him. He could hear her fall against the thick doors that separated them. "That you didn't mean to go _back to _her?"

"Exactly, I didn't want to kiss her! I don't want to be with her!" Percy explained, pounding the door with his hands.

Thalia laughed bitterly. It was like poison to his ears hearing it directed at him. "It certainly didn't look that way!"

"That's because it wasn't! _She_ kissed _me_!"

"Oh, and you sure didn't kiss her back!" Her sarcasm was thick.

Percy sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "It did not kiss her back, Thalia," he said calmly. "You're just overreacting."

"You still kissed her, and I know you could have stopped her from doing it," she snarled from the other side of the door. "And I don't care if I'm over-fricking-reacting! I know what I saw."

"And what you saw I can't take back, but please let me talk to you." He quit banging on the doors and rested his head against the cold bronze. "Please, Thalia, please."

As Percy leaned against the door, he got the shock of a lifetime - literally. He was launched a decent fifty feet away from the cabin, smelling of burnt skin and clothes. Rolling off his back and on to his feet, he noticed scorch marks streaking across his tanned skin, blistering in some places. He glanced around to see the confused faces of campers and satyrs alike, who all abruptly became interested in something other than him when he looked their way. Percy then attempted to casually brush himself off and stupidly walked back to Cabin One.

The second before his knuckles touched the doors, which was crackling with electricity, a voice sounded from the opposite side.

"Go away, Percy. I'm not in the mood to see you." Thalia sounded calm and composed, but the ice in her words sent a chill to his heart. He obliged without a word.

Saddened, Percy sullenly walked away, eyes on the ground, shoulders slumped, defeated. He would try again later. He would talk to Thalia with each and every mean he could manage. His feet meandered across camp, taking him gods-know-where across dirt, grass, and gravel. He didn't look up until somebody called out to him.

"Percy!"

It was Annabeth.

Percy swallowed hard and flashed her a small, brief smile before he desperately scanned the area for any method of escaping his "girlfriend". What he saw brought new life to him: the boy's bathroom. His pace picked up and soon he was jogging to reach the building. He couldn't speak with Annabeth, not for the rest of the day at least. Out of the corner of his eye, Percy could see that she, too, was jogging, trying to catch up to him with words in her mouth. Words Percy never got to hear because he slid safely into the laboratory, filled with relief.

The bathroom was strangely empty. There wasn't a soul to be found. Percy wasn't going to take his chances, though, and climbed up on a toilet and locked the stall door.

It wasn't long until his claustrophobia reached him, its claws grasping at his mind. He shrank into a tight ball, his knees tucked under his chin and arms wrapped around his legs. "In, out," he chanted. "In, out." The space began to warp and shrink. It squished him and squeezed him and his lungs threatened to burst from the lack of oxygen. Percy tried to keep his thoughts on Thalia - _Thalia_, he breathed – and on how to mend their temporarily fractured relationship; however, the black spots creeping into his vision made him distracted, and it took an exceedingly large amount of effort to keep from toppling off the toilet seat. He began to sway, the pressure in the small space growing higher, and Percy began remembering every single moment he had with Thalia. His face still hit the cold tile of the bathroom floor and the darkness won him over.

**.x.**

Thalia let out a deep breath and collected the past two hours worth of thoughts. She thought she'd give Percy a chance to explain himself. Her back cracked as she stretched, her butt was sore from sitting on the floor for so long, but Percy was worth these little annoyances.

Outside, it was just as it had been earlier, only the sky was tinged with the sunset that made the cabins sparkle. The humidity was pleasant and the air was warm, one of her favourite kinds of weather. She mulled over what she would say to Percy after the two made up. Admittedly, she _was_ overreacting and was sort of jealous, she could admit to that. Thalia also knew that according to everybody besides herself and Percy, he and Annabeth _were_ a couple, but that doesn't mean he'd have to go kissing her in public - even if she _did_ kiss him first.

A hand touched her shoulder and her blood ran cold. _Speak of the Devil and he shall appear_, she huffed. Showcasing a forced smile, she turned to Annabeth.

"Hey, Annabeth" - she made an effort not to sneer - "have you seen Percy? He and I were supposed to beat the shit out of each other today, but I just can't seem to find him," she lied smoothly about the first half.

Annabeth shrugged. "Last I saw him, he looked like he had to pee like a racehorse. He was running to the bathroom."

Thalia made a face. "'Kay, thanks for telling me. I think I'll see him at dinner. Bye."

"Bye…" Annabeth stared at Thalia's retreating back.

As soon as the stare was off of her, Thalia made her way to the bathrooms only to see an unconscious Percy being carried out by a Hephaestus kid.

"Hey!" she shouted. "Hey!"

_Kid probably can't hear me_, she concluded, but kept on yelling for him. _Oh, screw that. He's freaking deaf._

The two boys were now small, dark specks as the boy hurried into the doors of the Big House. Thalia sprinted to the porch and was in the doorway when Chiron walked out. "Percy's in the Infirmary," he told her. "He got claustrophobic and needs his rest. He won't appreciate having somebody hovering over him when he awakes."

"But―!" she protested.

"'But' nothing, let the boy rest. You can visit him in the morning."

Thalia knew better than to go against the centaur's orders and wandered off, cursing Chiron for not letting her visit her secret lover.

**.x.**

It was the hours of the morning when Percy regained consciousness. Pale moonlight filtered through the blinds of the Infirmary and he wondered why he was there. It promptly hit him.

The kiss. The argument. The claustrophobia.

Percy face-palmed when he remembered what happened in the toilet stall. Thalia would probably be willing to listen to him in the morning, and if he woke her up now she'd most likely send him into a coma from the vast amount of electricity he'd receive. He's had enough of those for the moment. But Percy wanted to apologise to her as soon as possible, and the only way he could do that was:

First choice― he could hang over her like a dead goose.

Or the much preferable second choice― write her a note.

Yes, a note would do.

His hands rummaged through the nightstand next to the hospital bed for a pen and pad of paper he was certain was there, and in the pastel moonlight wrote:

"_I'd rather argue with you than to be with someone else."_

**.x.**

**AN:/** Um… review! I have miniature pies for everybody that does! Yeah… that's 'bout it. I LOVE YOU.


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